Vote for your 2014 Spanish GP driver of the weekend

Which F1 driver was the best performer during the Spanish Grand Prix weekend?

Review how each driver got on below and vote for who impressed you the most during the last race weekend.

Spanish Grand Prix driver-by-driver

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – Having switched chassis for the weekend in the hope it might help cure his handling problems with the RB10, Vettel’s race build-up was marred by problems. He stopped after four laps in first practice and missed the rest of the day’s running as the team replaced his wiring loom. Then his gearbox failed in Q3, leaving him 15th on the grid. To recover from there to finish fourth behind his team mate, aided by a three-stop strategy and some bold passes, is the best he could have hoped for.

Daniel Ricciardo – Looked right on it in qualifying and it would have been fascinating to see how he stacked up against an unhindered Vettel. The only blot on his performance was an indifferent start where he was passed by Bottas and nearly Grosjean as well. An early first pit stop allowed him to jump the Williams – though he came close to making a move stick on-track – and after that he had plenty of free space to nurse his tyres through a couple of longer stints.

Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – Missed some running in first practice due to a problem with his energy recovery system but looked to be on course for pole position when he headed the times in Q1 and Q2. Hamilton beat him to it, though, and as he didn’t get off the line well he was on the back foot once again. As in Bahrain he showed he had the pace to take the fight to his team mate, and was poised to launch an attack when the chequered flag came down.

Lewis Hamilton – Having described Friday’s running as his best for a very long time, Hamilton seemed to lose his way initially on Saturday. But he got it together in time to take his fourth pole position of the year. Nonetheless his handling maladies returned during the race – he struggled with oversteer on his middle stint on medium tyres and Rosberg continued to catch him over the final laps. But he hung on to take win number four and the championship lead.

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – Out-qualified by Raikkonen in a straight fight for the first time this year (he had a problem with his car in Bahrain) but looked quicker than his team mate from the moment the race began. Probably should have jumped ahead when he got the benefit of the first pit stop, but used a switch to a three-stop strategy to his advantage and made a move on-track with newer tyres late in the race.

Kimi Raikkonen – While Alonso was brought in on lap 17 and switched to a three-stop strategy to cover what Vettel was doing, Raikkonen was not and ended up being passed by his team mate. “Going for a two stop strategy proved to be the wrong choice because tyre degradation meant I couldn’t push all the way to the end,” he said.

Lotus

Romain Grosjean – Had various problems with his car during practice but produced the goods in qualifying to put his Lotus an excellent fifth on the grid. He held that place until a problem with his power unit left him unable to keep the Ferraris behind on the straight. But eighth place meant he brought home Lotus’s first points of the year.

Pastor Maldonado – For the second weekend in a row Grosjean reached Q3 while Maldonado was eliminated in Q1: He spun into a wall just minutes after the session had begun. His race didn’t get off to a better start – he hit Ericsson on lap one, earning a stop-go penalty and licence endorsement. After falling to last place he came home ahead of the Saubers, but was passed by Kvyat after running a long final stint.

McLaren

Jenson Button – Took eighth on the grid and suspected there was only a little more time to be found in the McLaren. However a poor start – losing five places – left him with much to do. The timing of his second pit stop compounded his problems as he was held in his box while Kvyat went by, and then came out a lap down behind Hamilton’s Mercedes which was on old tyres. That left Button behind the Force Indias and out of the points.

Kevin Magnussen – A problem with his power unit in Q2 meant Magnussen was unable to set a time, leaving him 14th on the grid. He managed to avoid clipping Vettel and damaging his front wing on the first lap, but like his team mate couldn’t make any impression on the points places.

Force India

Nico Hulkenberg – Missed a place in Q3 by less than a tenth of a second but said his lap was “very good”. Ran ninth for much of the race but was demoted by his team mate during the final stint.

Sergio Perez – Aborted his final flying lap in Q2 because he hadn’t got his tyres up to temperature in traffic, which left him one place behind Hulkenberg on the grid. Both Force Indias ran long final stints – Hulkenberg 29 laps on hards, Perez 28 on mediums – and on lap 50 Perez got by his team mate on the outside of turn one.

Sauber

Adrian Sutil – Having been content with his car on Friday he couldn’t get on top of the tyre temperatures on Saturday and was knocked out in Q1 for the third time. Despite having shed weight from their car Sauber continue to languish at the back of the midfield: “We still have a huge problem with the grip level,” reckoned Sutil.

Esteban Gutierrez – Qualified 14th and felt there wasn’t any more in the car. A good start moved up up to 11th but the car plainly wasn’t capable of holding that position and he was demoted by Kvyat, Button and Vettel. But he grafted away on his three-stop strategy and at least had the satisfaction of passing Sutil on the final lap.

Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne – A wheel came off his car during practice, earning him an automatic ten-place grid penalty. Therefore Vergne elected not to set a time after reaching Q2. But his fortune did not change on Sunday: The team were aware of an exhaust problem on his car before the race started, and it proved terminal.

Daniil Kvyat – Tyre degradation forced him onto a three-stopper. He passed two cars in his final stint to finish 14th and was reeling in Massa and the McLarens at the end.

Williams

Felipe Massa – Admitted he made a mistake at turn ten on his final flying lap, losing the rear of his car, which left him five places behind his team mate. The race didn’t go much better – he seldom managed to break out of traffic on his three-stopper and couldn’t make a move on the McLaren drivers.

Valtteri Bottas – Didn’t look comfortable with his car in practice, having sat out Q1 while Felipe Nasr drove, but set-up changes during final practice helped him take fourth on the grid. A decent start moved him up to third. But it always looked unlikely he was going to keep Ricciardo at bay, or the three-stopping Vettel who appeared during the final stint. Fifth place equalled his best result so far.

Marussia

Jules Bianchi – Lost time at turn ten on his flying lap but still out-qualified the two Caterhams. Pulled away from Chilton but the Marussia wasn’t on the pace of the Saubers, meaning Bianchi had a lonely race.

Max Chilton – Spun into the gravel twice during practice, so it was a surprise to see him out-qualify Bianchi. However his three-stop strategy dropped him behind Ericsson, losing time. An engine oil pressure problem in the closing stages threatened to end his 100% finishing rate but he made it to the flag again.

Caterham

Kamui Kobayashi – Claimed Bianchi held him up during qualifying, costing him a few tenths of a second and leaving him last of those who set times. His race ended on lap 44: “I had a pretty scary moment going into turn one when the left front brake failed and I was just able to keep the car out of the wall,” he said. He had a similar scare in Australia, but fortunately Massa wasn’t there for him to hit this time.

Marcus Ericsson – Out-qualified Kobayashi for the first time but was concerned about his car’s unpredictable handling. Having been assaulted by Maldonado on the first lap he brought his damaged car home in last place.

With Vettel missing all of practice and his issues in qualifying, the Ricciardo-Vettel comparison was rather harder here. Bottas on the other hand, blew Massa away.
Of course, not comparing Massa and Vettel ;) …Ricciardo did a great job, but I wanted to vote for someone else having voted for the Aussie at Bahrain.

I also voted for Bottas. Ricciardo doesn’t get my vote because he is in what is widely tipped as the best car behind the Mercedes. Williams’ form has fluctuated and they’ve not made the best of their opportunities. This weekend I think Bottas finally got the maximum he could from the Williams and that’s why he gets my vote.

While it’s true what you said, it’s also true that Massa was quicker than him during the practices (and had he not made the error in qualifying, he’d have beaten Bottas there too, according to the data).

This means that although he did do an error-free weekend, his inherent pace was slower than his teammate’s, which I think would be a must for a DotW vote.

Practice means nothing, besides Bottas missed FP1, which means he wasn’t able to get proper setups untill the qualifying.

I’d like to know what exactly is this data you are talking about? According to F1Fanatic’s information, the combined best sector times of both Bottas and Massa show that Bottas was faster and on his best Q3 lap, Bottas was 0.77 seconds faster than Massa was, which can’t be all down to just one error.

Yes, according to the best sector times, Bottas was faster by 0.129s, but remember, this means that one (the third) of Massa’s sectors must have come from Q2 or Q1 and I think it’s quite likely he’d have toppled it in Q3 by more than the above margin.

That best lap difference of 0.77 does not count, as we all know there was an error from Massa in there.

And yep, it was an error from Massa, ruling him out of the voting big time, but it still leaves him faster on pace.

Although your point of Bottas missing FP1 does hold, I think, so, of course, I give the benefit of doubt.

You live in a funny world. Practice or ultimate times does not matter. The only things that matter are grid position and the race itself. You don’t get points for practice nor for the the lap times you get. You get them on Sunday full stop.

it’s also true that Massa was quicker than him during the practices (and had he not made the error in qualifying, he’d have beaten Bottas there too

But that’s the thing, isn’t it? Massa made a mistake, Bottas didn’t. Bottas finished in the points, Massa didn’t. As already mentioned by someone else, Bottas missed FP1 as Nasr was in his car, which puts him at a disadvantage to his team-mate, who he then went on to beat when it mattered.

Also, Claire Williams told Sky Sports that Massa had the updates on his car on Friday whereas Bottas didn’t get them on his car until Saturday. So the practice times from Friday can’t really be compared between the two.

It’s not like fuel where every car is checked. They just took a random sample of drivers, I think about 4, of which Hamilton was one. So in a way it’s like luck of the draw. In this case Ferrari got away with it!

Wrong. Both Alonso and Raikkonen’s both were. Read the statement. It said both cars #14 & #7. And btw, even if Alonso’s car was illegal this race, Raikkonen still out-qualified Alonso once in a straight fight.

first of all, no evidence says FIA’s req it due to excess power, we can make all kinds of logical conclusions, but fact is the reason remains unclear. Also, IMO drive ability of the car is optimized for 120kw , this is not like engine power, its KERS power meaning excess torque at corner exits can make drive ability worse, so i would not make conclusions that fernando had advantage with out full facts.

Vettel. Definitely driver of the race. I decided to also make him driver of the weekend as he didn’t do much wrong on the rest of the weekend, even though he did not have much chance to do well either due to the technical issues.

You do not give driver of the weekend to someone because they didn’t do anything wrong thats the least we expect of them. A bit more analysis should go into it and if one driver goes above and beyond expectations then he deserves the accolade. Did Vettel go above and beyond? No! It was a very ordinary drive in superior machinery just ending up exactly where most predicted before the race. Now, if he had overhauled Ricciardo as well in similar machinery then that would have been above and beyond!

@blackmamba
Very ordinary? Yes, because somehow getting past 11 cars and making some bold passes despite having one of the slowest straight-line speeds is SO ordinary… >_> And given that Ricciardo started 3rd while Vettel started 15th through no fault of his own, Ricciardo would have to be really incompetent or be afflicted with some bad luck to somehow finish behind Vettel… apart from the invincible Mercs he’s the only driver Vettel didn’t get past due to a severe disadvantage in circumstances.

It was a very ordinary drive in superior machinery just ending up exactly where most predicted before the race.

You’re a psychic, I believe. You see and understand what normal people can’t. Congrats. But, sorry to say, for me you’re absolutely wrong and blind. Vettel’s performance will be remembered as one of the best of this year. But, that’s only the result of my limited sighting.

@mike-dee – I agree that Vettel was driver of the race, but I think Hamilton edges it over the weekend. He had a fundamentally poorer balance than Rosberg on Saturday and Sunday and yet won the race from pole at a track where Nico trounced him the year before. His pole lap was sheer driving artistry, both in the way he neutralized the wheel-spin on car that, on the basis of the snippets of onboard footage with Rosberg, was not translating its torque onto the tarmac as sweetly as Nico’s, and in the way he effortlessly ironed out the “passive”, i.e. not throttle induced, oversteer triggered by tail-winds and cold rears. Perhaps the very fact that Hamilton, if probably on the recommendations of his engineers, went the wrong way on setup infringes upon his case, but I would say the occasional setup woes Hamilton suffers is but one factor on an increasingly short list of Lewis’ weaknesses.

As it turned out, Rosberg’s gas pedal wasn’t delivering 100%.
He was quicker than Lewis in the run before Vettel had his problems. He was also on the worse strategy, and I personally think was given wrong advice to stay out for 3 more laps on his first stint, when Lewis made about 3 seconds…

Not to take away from Lewis, but I think Nico had the better weekend with the wrong result.

+1
I can not understand why they didnt pit him one lap after ham. he lost about 3 secs. and it was obvious that the softer tyres would provide enough stamina till the end of the race without excessive tyremanagment.

@dennis, I would like to balance out what you said with the additional data point that Lewis lost approx 3 seconds due to the 2 slower pit stops. This gave Lewis as much disadvantage as Nico’s 3 extra laps prior to pit stop 1. Therefore, Lewis’ drive over the duration of the race was superior to that of Nico’s. Lewis also overcame a few set up issues with a fantastic last gasp effort in the qualifying that set him up for the victory. Nico despite the balance and set up advantages could not produce a similar lap. For these reasons, I suggest that Lewis made a much better case for being the better driver – at least to me.

As I said, I don’t want to take away anything from Hamilton’s race. He did a massively good job, but still, Rosberg was on the slower strategy (because he lost out in qualy – however, we will never know how much he actually lost because of his faulty gas pedal), and still managed to get close to Lewis in the end, despite staying out several laps longer than Lewis and losing more than what Lewis lost during the pit stops. Today I read Nico himself is now wondering why they did it on “auto motor sport.”

Great race by Lewis, but it was much too close for me to vote Hamilton as driver of the weekend.

@william-brierty, I read your comments about DOTW and still get confused. You say what say now, that Vettel is the driver of the race, and Ham driver of the weekend, etc. But, last GP you voted for Alonso as DOTW. You see, for me, you make this too complex. Think as a normal fan does. About last GP, what will become in my memory for a long time? For me will be Ham grabbing the winning, pole and beating team mate, as deserved. But, also, Vettel destroying the critics and the “tough luck” around him, grabbing 11! places and the fastest lap (ok, 3 pit stop, etc, but alonso stopped 3 times too and achieve nothing of a kind), and, probably the most important, the fact he returned hope to RBR for the rest of the championship. If that is not whatever a DOTW represents, I don’t know what is.

Vettel for me too.
Having basically no Friday running at all, then a problem in Qualy to start at the back and then to come 4th, which is effectively 2nd in the tier-2, was impressive.
Because of this RedBull went home with the best result they could have expected, as if the weekend had gone perfectly, but it sooo did not. (by no fault of the drivers)
Impressive recovery, impressive moves, seeing Vettel loosing out on the main straight I thought that was it, he is going to be stuck there behind drivers all through the race (as it usually happens in Barcelona), maybe score a point. But he then set about dive-bombing his way past everybody.

If only Rosberg had summoned up some courage to do one on Hamilton, might have been an even more exciting end of the race.

After suffering so much with problems out of his control on Friday and Saturday, to drive like he did during the race to fight his way back to fourth was a brilliant demonstration of what a great driver he is.

I didn’t think it would, but maybe indeed there was something strange about his first chassis. The next few races will be quite interesting in that matter. I still had the feeling that Ricciardo was quicker, but that shouldn’t be surprising after doing only 4 laps on friday in a car (chassis) you’re not farmiliar with.

Vettel for me, a serious charge up the feild on a very difficult overtaking circuit with a car down on horsepower. I don’t think he’s the best driver in the feild, or even second best, but he’s undeniably extremley good. Still really want to see him fight for race wins and the title in a car less dominant then the ones he’s racked up his wins in.

Despite finishing a long way behind his team mate, vettel impressed me this weekend, he had minimal running on Friday, was extremely unfortunate to line up 15th due to gear box issues, and still came through for 4th place, finally beating a merc to fastest lap along the way (although this may have something to do with his 3 stop strategy)! What’s more he showed himself to be able to perform clinical overtakes when he had to, without which his strategy couldn’t have worked, so IMO he is a worthy DOTW.
Notable mentions go to Hamilton, Ricciardo, Bottas and Grosjean.

It must be 2015 now, because I don’t remember him having a hard year. And if you count a regular top 10 grid slots and finishing in the top 5, I don’t see where was this car that made 4 races (a year) so hard for him. I know he got spoiled, but having a car that is 2nd fastest instead of the fastest one is not really that heartbreaking.

yep i voted for Vet, and i am a Ham fan,
i reckon Vet could see “he” for the first time could be lapped by the leading cars, this was the motivation which spurred him into action and gave us a great spectacle to which i enjoyed, plus my vote.

I gave the nod to LH because this is driver of the weekend not the race. The two Mercs were that close that I think had NR gotten pole the exact same race would have happened between the two only with NR on top. So to me they are that close that each driver needs practically a perfect weekend to prevail. I think NR lost out in quali when he was on a hot lap when SV’s car conked out and they red flagged the session briefly. Had that not happened I’m not convinced LH would have beaten NR in quali.

So while I think SV is a very strong candidate for driver of the race, I don’t think he was the driver of the whole weekend. I think that was LH who did just enough to win by half a second, starting on Saturday.

@twentyseven You might be right but Bahrain was one race, and yesterday winning by half a second and LH admitting NR was faster certainly is not the same kind of ‘domination’ as SV vs MW in the best car. This is new turf for NR and we may yet see him rise further to the occasion as the races go along. Thank goodness there are no orders on the team and we will get to see this rivalry flourish.

@petebaldwin Fair comment. You are absolutely right. I think I have approached DotW going to LH in the sense that if he hadn’t pipped NR on Saturday he might not have gotten by him on Sunday, and therefore what LH did on Saturday was crucial to Sunday which saw him pressured, or at least constantly concerned about NR’s position relative to him.

SV did an amazing job considering his limited car time ahead of the race, but he is in a different mode right now than LH and NR where there is pressure no doubt for SV and DR to advance the car, but it is a different pressure than at Merc. Also, if SV had had a more normal Friday and Saturday he may have qualified in 3rd or 4th and he and DR still finished in those spots, and then would he have been considered DotW, if he hadn’t had to come from 15th? ie. just as NR dropped to 6th or 7th at the start a few races ago, he still ended the race pretty much where he belonged that day, and perhaps same with SV.

it was a toss-up between HAM, VET, GRO and possibly BOT. But went with VET – little preparation time, solid recovery, executed an aggressive strategy perfectly and delivered a few of the most entertaining scenes during the race.

Tough call between VET and GEO but I voted for VET. Simply superb in race with some bold moves albeit an aggressive strategy and dint put any wrong foot through out the weekend. GRO was also very good throughout the weekend, placing Lotus where it dint belonged. HAM, ROS & BOT also had good weekend.

There were three drivers who really stood out for me this weekend, and neither of them was Lewis Hamilton, although he drove a great race.

Sebastian Vettel showed us why he’s as successful as he is. For a driver who apparently can’t overtake on a circuit which you apparently can’t overtake on, he done plenty of that. Made an aggressive three-stop work really well to finish P4 in a car which isn’t dominant.

Romain Grosjean delivered the sort of performance that he showed for a lot of last season. While his teammate was blaming walls for being too close and smashing into Caterhams, Grosjean outqualified the arguably quicker Ferraris and finished in the points despite a problem. Top job.

But my Driver of the Weekend is:

Valtteri Bottas delivered an excellent qualifying and an excellent race. He was yet to deliver a full performance he was happy with but he did this weekend. I did not expect him to outqualify cars like the Ferraris and maybe even the Lotus but he done just that. Had Massa’s trademark awesome start and was fighting with Ricciardo in the first part of the race and finished in fifth while his teammate struggled massively. Absolutely fantastic performance.

Hard to call.. My logic is as follows,
Hamilton got the job done and outshined his quick team mate throughout the race, even when under pressure at the end, it’s hard to give it to him though because he wasn’t stretched.
Vettel obviously brilliant to come from 15th to 4th but it’s hard to give it to him because we didn’t get to see what he could do in quali.
Grosjean, superb quali with a difficult car and did well to hold position until he had problems.. I gave it to him but honestly there’s nothing to choose between a lot of excellent performances.

As much as I don’t like to say it, Seb drove a great recovery race and showed why he is a 4 X WDC.

That being said I am enjoying Dan’s efforts in showing why he deserved that seat- some thought not and I hope he is changing their opinion. That’s not to say others like JEV, for example, would not do as great job, but happy our young Aussie is.

Has to be Grosjean. He pulled the slow and difficult to drive Lotus into Q3 and look where his teammate was! He truly outperformed the car this weekend and hung on to points even when he faced a PU issue.

This time it’s Vettel. Missed all Friday practice and couldn’t participate in last qualifying session purely down to car problems, but finally got the chance to show his skills during the race by rising through the field. Made some fantastic overtaking moves (Kobayashi style) and again proved critics he can overtake, and even more so, do it in style.

Also it must be mentioned that he set the fastest lap of the race, even though Mercedes cars were driven in anger (though on different strategy). All in all, a brilliant drive from four time world champion, who showed his class.

Hamilton – the pressure he was under at the end of the race was simply incredible. I think this circuit favors Rosberg and Hamilton really pushed himself to the edge to win. The strategy went against him, the pits cost him 1 and 1.3 seconds apiece and he had 3 kgs more of fuel at the end which must have slowed him down but still held it together.

No racer can do better than that! As for Vettel, it’s a lot easier to come from behind with a quick and incredibly stable car than the other drivers than it is to hold on to the lead with harder tyres.

Well ,that year,the Mclaren were not always the fastest, the tyres were made out of cheese and he had to deal with construction workers for a pit crew . But how does that matter . Just say Vettel did a great job . Don’t try to compare as these things are anything but accurate

@mnmracer You’re also ignoring the fact that while vettel came from 15th to 4th, Hamilton came from 24th to finish 8th, so factoring out the 4 easy positions from Marussia and Caterham, Hamilton still gained more positions than vettel! Still as @hamilfan says its silly to try to compare these things as it’s two completely different situations.

No racer can do better than that! As for Vettel, it’s a lot easier to come from behind with a quick and incredibly stable car than the other drivers than it is to hold on to the lead with harder tyres.

That was interesting…. last year Vettel was bashed around for winning the race from the front and not able to show his meat from the back of the grid….. Now It looks like coming from back of the Grid is just a easy thing . Looks like Pole to Win is an incredibly difficult thing :) WOW amazing perspectives !!!!

@tmax – Don’t you know the rules? If Vettel does well, it’s because of the car but if Hamilton does well, it’s because of his pure racing excellence?

He got the setup wrong and he’s heralded for doing a great job despite this issue… Vettel goes from 15th having had a series of issues meaning that he missed most of free practice, couldn’t compete in Q3 and got a grid penalty and despite fighting through to 4th place with some great overtaking moves (don’t forget, he’s rubbish at overtaking) and it’s still all down to the car!

Under adverse conditions, Vettel was amazing to watch. He just went for it, cleanly, and that’s what I watch F1 to see. I was actually cheering for him- Driver of the Weekend!
Honorable mention goes to Bottas, who’s first podium seems to be just around the corner.
Dishonorable mention goes to Maldonado, again. I hope he’s paying Lotus enough to keep fixing his car, but he is bad for their image. However, he does make Grosjean look good.

It is rare that I find myself voting for a driver that was beaten by his team-mate in both Qualifying and the Race, but I find myself voting for Vettel on this occasion. He bounced back from a difficult Friday and looked in decent shape on Saturday until the Q3 problems. He started 15th, made 1 more pitstop than his teammate and finished around a pitstop behind him, and had to overtake to get up to 4th. None of this ‘strategy’ nonsense putting him up in 4th, he had to overtake. BBC showed his overtakes in the post-race. I counted 7, and I believe a lot of them were done on corners, not a DRS blast-past that others have criticised F1 for.
Rosberg and Hamilton made the race brilliant, Vettel made it entertaining in the first place.

why are people voting for vettel? the only reason he moved up so many positions was through pit stops, he only overtook three cars on track i believe.

i voted for grosjean, simply because he got that dog of a car, that was struggling to keep up with caterhams at the start of the year so far up the field in qualifying and didn’t loose too much positions during the race.

Totally off topic but Ferrari’s pit strategy did not make sense to me until late in the race. Fernando could not jump Raikkonen on merit, so the team did everything in their power to try and intervene in order to save him the indignity of being lapped in front of his home crowd. It bothers me how Ferrari are so biased towards Alonso.

Sebastian Vettel. After facing the adversity of having next-to-no running on Friday – missing out on setting a qualifying lap in the most representative conditions during FP2 and having indeed any long run practice at all – and then to be befallen with technical problems when it was crucial his car functioned to perfection was a massive setback.

Coupled with the already demoralised demeanour of having been out-paced by his teammate in the previous rounds, the need for a gearbox change must have only served to compound his misery.

And how did he react? By putting on arguably the drive of the season so far. After an imperfect start, his third stint on the mediums was a mesmerising display of pace, and his overtaking in they final stint was sublimely executed in a car which is notably lacking in straight line speed, on a track where it is already difficult to overtake.

He was faced by adversity, and he certainly flew in it. That performance marked the return of the champion.

I agree with you in part but I have to say that the RB had a lot more downforce than the other cars. That’s why Vettel could literally overtake anywhere he wanted. I think Daniel’s car also displayed the same poise in his passes.

Obviously, RB are continuing to increase the downforce but the engine performance is out of their hands for the time being although I’m certain RB are frenetically trying to improve the engine’s performance of course. You’d expect no less from a top team that swept both championships over 4 years straight.

Vettel did it for me.
He came into the weekend, already on the back-foot. A new chassis to evaluate, and then all hell breaks loose. Barely any running in Practice. Then another car failure dropping him to 15th.
Would he give up hope? I know I had. But he most certainly did not.
Normally it would be impossible to overtake with such a top speed disadvantage, but Vettel simply accepted that he had to do it regardless. And so he did. Lunged down the inside from a mile back, and made it stick each time.
Not only that, his speed was also excellent. None of the sluggishness we saw in Bahrain and China.
He was just on it.

I went for Bottas. Massa looked way better on Friday, but Valtteri delivered in qualifying and he was able to stay in front of the Ferraris in the race. He was able to defend from Ricciardo on track, but obviously the Red Bull was much faster and he lost the position in the pits.

Bottas was voted a lot after the Australian GP, but I feel that this weekend’s performance was better, even if less spectacular.

Wish I could split the vote between Vettel, Ricciardo, Bottas, Grosjean and Hamilton with an honorable mention to Rosberg. Not the way it works though, so Hamilton got my vote for being the DOTW. Was just a step ahead of Rosberg the whole weekend. One wrong step and Rosberg would have been there to pick up the pieces. Hamilton and Rosberg are so close in performance that the pressure on both of them could stagger a lesser driver. Hats off to both of them for not cracking under pressure and keeping it clean. Good on Mercedes for allowing them to race.

Lewis Hamilton: a lights-to-flag victory on paper, but in reality it was never quite that comfortable. Two slow pit stops from his mechanics brought Nico Rosberg much closer to him than would otherwise have been the case, and he did very well to keep calm and drive consistently fast to keep his lead to the end of the race. He produced another great lap in qualifying as well, of course.

Daniel Ricciardo: earned his first legitimate podium finish with a solid qualifying performance and good race strategy.

Sebastian Vettel: qualified in 15th through no real fault of his own and, once again, made a mockery of those who say he can’t race from anywhere but the front by fighting his way up to fourth.

Valtteri Bottas: the rest of the top seven was a clear indication of the pecking order amongst the teams at this weekend’s Grand Prix: a pair of Mercedes cars, followed by two Red Bulls and the two Ferraris. Bottas did really well to disrupt that order, first by giving another demonstration of his remarkable (but still sporadic) qualifying ability, and then by driving a clean, fast race. I think he could have finished ahead of Vettel with a better strategy. He now has nearly three times the points of Felipe Massa and has caught right up to the highly-rated Nico Hülkenberg in the standings. He’s having a quietly impressive season.

Romain Grosjean: scored his team’s first points of the year with a really impressive weekend while his team-mate was busy picking up points of an altogether different kind.

I’m torn between Hamilton, Vettel and Bottas, but I’ll give it to Vettel for producing the most exciting and impressive race of the three.

He wasn’t doing anything of the kind. Look at the gaps and you can see Alonso could bring the gap between him and Raikkonen down to the normal 1.5-2 second range when he pleased, which is what he did before making his second pit stop.

in Teds Notebook they mentioned that the team changed the setup even though Lewis told them not to, I assume they found something that they thought would have made the car better but since the temps changed and it rained overnight removing the rubber the setup went the wrong way and Lewis had loads of oversteer. Its still amazing how he can still get pole and win even with a bad setup. This year Nico has only been closer when Lewis has had a bad setup so was Nico really faster because he was faster or is it because Lewis slowed down a bit.

I can’t believe it’s not a straight fight between Bottas and Rosberg!
It looks like about 3 people have voted for Rosberg but over the whole weekend I think he did an excellent job. Bottas was mighty, too. I see a few mentions of Bottas in the comments but nobody even gives Rosberg the time of day… he put Hamilton under pressure all weekend, his practice and quali were excellent, he pushed hard right to the line. All in all, just the sort of driver we want to see!

Rosberg did a good job to be so close in performance to Hamilton, who’s in tremendous form at present, but he still qualified and finished the race behind. As a general rule, finishing behind your team mate under normal circumstances rules you out of DOTW contention. As you say, he pressured Hamilton through qualifying and the race. He looked more comfortable in the car, whilst Hamilton suffered with a particularly wayward rear from Saturday practice onwards. Therefore, that he still managed to snatch pole from Rosberg and go on to win is a real credit to his performance, and is less favourable when evaluating Rosberg’s performance over the weekend. So, it is perfectly understandable that he is amassing votes and Rosberg is not. Simply put, he couldn’t possibly be credited as DOTW, since his team mate beat him fair and square.

@goodyear92: But this is not “driver of the race” – it’s the whole weekend. If we all just voted for whoever won the race there would be no point.
Rosberg was consistently a class act all weekend, and no-one seems to have noticed.

I’m fully aware that voting should take into consideration the whole weekend and not just the race, and stated as much in my original comment. Hamilton bested Rosberg in the race, and also qualifying. The practice sessions are pretty much irrelevant, but if you want to look at every session during the weekend, then Hamilton finished ahead in two versus Rosberg’s one. And though Rosberg seemed more comfortable on Saturday and Sunday, Friday and Q3 demonstrated that Hamilton did not lack for pace, and fully comfortable, was faster than Rosberg. It’s just that his side of the garage went in the wrong direction on set-up, and as a result, he struggled in the car more than Rosberg. And yet, still qualified and finished ahead, which is what counts. His performance was just better. Rosberg fell short when it counted most, despite having that upper hand.

@goodyear92 – Sure, I understand your point. But Vettel was out-qualified and beaten in the race by his team mate too. Yet 52% of us voted for him (and yes, he did an amazing job on race day).
My worry is that Rosberg seems to be invisible while Hamilton seems to be invincible. And I’m a big Hamilton fan.

@tribaltalker Yes, but under very different circumstances. Apart from Rosberg being down a bit on power for his final qualifying run, which even he admits wouldn’t have made enough of a difference to put him on pole, his fight with Hamilton was on an even playing field. Vettel on the other hand didn’t have a fair chance to out-qualify Ricciardo, as his car let him down not once, but twice: during FP1 (which also caused him to lose out on FP2), and during Q3, negating his shot a final qualifying effort. Then he suffered a grid penalty, whilst Ricciardo started from 3rd. So it was far from an even shootout between the two, and both performed very well under their respective circumstances, but Vettel did slightly better for me to come back from where he did.
Rosberg’s far from invisible. He’s giving Hamilton a fight for it, but ultimately Hamilton’s been the better of the two over these five races. When he’s got it all hooked up (Malaysia and China) he’s obliterated Rosberg, but when the tables have been turned, and Lewis has been on his backfoot somewhat, (Bahrain and Spain) he’s still managed to snatch it from Rosberg, as with this weekend.

@tribaltalker – Rosberg did well but the fact remains that Hamilton was not at his best this weekend (which is why I don’t think he deserves the Driver of the Weekend) but he still finished ahead of Rosberg in a straight fight….

Went for Bottas . He qualified well above the class of his car and used his mercedes engine advantage at the start to capitalize positions by storming off the line . Tried his best holding off Ricciardo . I was amazed how he held off the faster RBR for quite a while despite DRS . Would have sneaked in a 4th place had it been for the Vettel charge . Great defensive driving and giant performance which stood out to me .

I really tried to vote for someone other than Sebastian V but in the final analysis he drove the best race. I also tried to push Nico ahead of Lewis and wish that Kimi and Felipe could get it going….. Daniel R is also a favorite plus Bottas and Grosjean. I think this series of unusual circumstances (bad luck some would say) for Sebastian V is good in a way as it will remind him of what life is really like in the long run. He never seemed to become arrogant but this year has given him a good dose of reality and I believe he will be a better person and a better champion be it this year or the next several. RnR

Vettel for me. Did nothing wrong all weekend, just bad luck in qualifying. We can all say ‘yeah but Red Bull is the 2nd best car’ but he pulled off some good overtakes and certainly got the maximum out of a seemingly hopeless situation.

Vettel. Only 24 laps in free practice, a car that breaks down in Q3 and a grid penalty for a gear box change. To surmount that kind of “tough luck” and have the confidence to do some of the overtakes he did requires racecraft and perseverance. I would have expected him to end up 8th or 9th, I was amazed to see him charge through the field like that.

This year might just be a blessing for him, some misfortune, a strong team mate, new regulations that don’t fit the style he developed to the extreme these last 4 years, and a dominant competitor… it’s safe to say he’s not been enjoying himself but it builds character and might just give him a chance to silence his most tenacious critics.

Haha, I see what you did there! To be fair, he showed some of his qualities yesterday and I was actually curious to see just how high he could get. Also, he seems to have picked up Mark Webber’s traits somewhat this year – Mark was a bit of a high downforce specialist and Seb’s done well in Malaysia and Spain (possibly the two highest downforce circuits so far), which isn’t that surprising if it means the downforce level is closer to the lowest level of his 2013 comfort zone.

I voted Ericsson because he somehow survived Maldonado…… nah I’m joking!
I voted for Grosjean due to putting a Lotus where it isn’t supposed to be on the grid and somehow stayed in the points despite a power unit problem.

Grosjean for me – he forced the Lotus into Q3 (fifth) while Pastor binned it again (this time in Q1), then drove a flawless race only to be beaten by the two Ferraris and the recovering Vettel due to having car problems again. You can’t fault him for effort, 10/10!

Definitely Max. 24 finishes out of 24 starts. That is amazing form. Even if he hasn’t been a regular on the podium he can claim to have always brought the car home, nobody else on the grid can boast about that.

Voted Vettel. It was a hard Choice between Vettel and Lewis. Finally decided in Vettel’s favor because Lewis did not get a Grand Chelem and Vettel got the fastest Lap of the race. It was a tough weekend for Vettel especially after the “Tough Luck” weekend, he did a good comeback with some Tough Luck the entire weekend. Plus some good overtakes during the race kept me from dozing off.

But I must admit that Lewis also did a great job over the weekend !!! he was good in qualifying and held of a determined Rosberg. Albeit with a little whining :)

Gave it to Vettel – he was 3rd fastest behind the Mercedes in Q2 which also means he had extracted the maximum from the tyres that he started the race with. Unlike a regular P15 starter who can start with fresh tyres, Vettel started the race with a 3 lap old tyre just like front runners and still had to pass the Ferraris, Williams, Force Indias and McLarens during the race to finish P4.

In case of Ricciardo, he couldn’t catch up the Mercs ahead and didn’t have any threat from Bottas behind him. So he had full control over his race and could look after the car and drive the race according to the plan. So no pressure of overtakes or undercuts on him during the race.

Since Hamilton and Rosberg were performing in similar levels, there is no point in giving DOTW to either of them since what we saw was performance of the car and not the driver.

Bottas did better than his team mate but Massa is no benchmark to compare against. Someone performing worse than Massa needs to be kicked out of F1 but doing better than Massa doesn’t say anything!

I voted for Seb Vettel as his overtakes we’re awesome. Saying that, I don’t think the TV coverage I got showed more than a few mins of Dan Ricciardo and only barely more of Valtteri Bottas (who also drove amazing races). I know there is data showing how well they did but it somehow seems to have more impact when you ‘view’ it.

A few candidates but my vote goes to Vettel this time. Having missed most of the practice sessions and being 15th on the grid through no fault of his own, he had a lot of work to do to make up the ground and he did it with a punchy, aggressive drive. Special mention to Bottas for a great qualy and tidy, if unspectacular race, he would be my second choice.

@vettel1
Some observations do have worth. However, you seemed to draw attention to the fact you dislike that sort of comment. As your first phrase clearly stated.
“I DISLIKE all the “and I’m a fan of X” “and I’m not a fan of Y” comments.”

Fortunately we are here to discuss F1, not personal taste for comments. So, although your second statement does raise an interesting point, you have overshadowed it by stating that the reason they should not be here is because you dislike them.

It’s a tough one this time as no-one really stood out that much but I’m going to go for Ricciardo.

Hamilton wasn’t at his best so it’s hard to pick him. Rosberg drove well but couldn’t beat Hamilton who wasn’t at his best so hard to pick him either…. Vettel drove well to recover however the Red Bull’s were comfortably the 2nd best cars so that was to be expected.

If the Red Bull’s were on top like they were last year, Ricciardo would have won by a significant distance and would have qualified on pole. Just because the Mercs are so much faster than the rest, it doesn’t mean that the job he is currently doing is any worse than the job Vettel did last year. Unless both Mercs fail to finish, Riccardio had zero chance of beating them this weekend and due to the fact he’s new to the team, I think it’s really impressive how he’s doing so he gets my vote this time.

@petebaldwin Fair enough but Ricciardo couldn’t pass Bottas on track and that was the only car he raced against during the GP. You probably should have given your vote to Hamilton as he did all that was asked of him. I voted for Vettel because passing as many cars as he did on a circuit know for processions and little passing was impressive.

@curmudgeon – Yeah fair enough. Vettel would have probably got my vote had I not gone for Ricciardo. I was just impressed that he kept the whole weekend clean and did exactly what was needed to finish in the best position he could have hoped for without the Mercs running into problems. That goes right through all sessions to get the car set up right, qualify it where he needed to and for making no mistakes all weekend. It was a drive that you would have expected from someone like Alonso with years of experience.

If he was racing the Mercs, I think we’d have seen him push on a bit more however he managed everything perfectly.

Hamilton just didn’t get everything right. He wasn’t faster than Rosberg so it’s difficult to say he was the best driver over the weekend. Similarly, Rosberg was faster but was unable to finish ahead of Hamilton so it’s hard to say he was the best either….

He had plenty of car problems leading up to the race which left him well down the grid, but he put in great drive in the race to finish fourth.

Ricciardo continues to impress but with Vettel’s troubles over the weekend you couldn’t really get a good comparison of the two teammates.

Other drivers who seemed to perform well over the weekend were Bottas, Grosjean and of course Hamilton, Rosberg may have been faster formost of Saturday but Hamilton pulled it out of the bag when it mattered in Q3 and had enough to keep him behind during the race.

– Suffered a 5-grid penalty because of a car problem and a tough weekend.
– Remained positive (which I believe to be screaming at the radio after being held up for long for the 1st stint into the race)
– Brilliant overtakes at T10 of Circuit de Catalunya
– Sets the fastest lap of the race where Mercedes would have easily gotten it (Yeah you may say fresher tyres, lighter fuel load. But with the down in horsepower compared to the Mercs?)

Special mention to Grosjean, Raikkonen and Bottas.

– Bottas and Grosjean put the car into the best position for the team, especially Grosjean’s Lotus after an eventful disastrous Winter testing and first few races.
– Raikkonen for being in front of Alonso after a bad start to the season.